Reasoning in Games: Players as Programs

Language and Logic Courses

Advanced Course

The aim of this course is to cover some of the most successful and fruitful approaches to modeling players’ reasoning and deliberations in games—from logic, artificial intelligence, cognitive science, and game theory—with an eye toward the possibility of unification. The course will draw on recent literature in game theory, behavioral economics, cognitive science, and artificial intelligence. Such an interdisciplinary perspective will appeal to many of the participants at ESSLLI. Students attending this course will get hands-on experience using WebPPL probabilistic programs (webppl.org) to represent agents in game situations; understand how well-known computational models (finite automata and Turing machines) can be used to represent players’ reasoning in games; understand how methods from the mathematical theory of evolution can provide a powerful tool to explain strategic interactions; and be exposed to intriguing experimental results about how humans behave in strategic situations.
Course website: http://pacuit.org/esslli2018/gamereasoning/